Cortisol's daytime rhythm is thought to be altered by aging and by exposure to chronic stress. However, measurement of an individual's usual cortisol rhythm is hampered by the effects of acute stressors, by differences between working days and weekends, by between-day variation in waking time and sleep duration, by variability in cortisol sampling times, and by possible variability in the timin...

The pharmacodynamics of moxifloxacin against Streptococcus pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were investigated in a pharmacokinetic infection model. Three strains of S. pneumoniae, moxifloxacin, and two strains of P. aeruginosa were used. Antibacterial effect and emergence of resistance were measured for both species over a 72-h period using an initial inoculum of about 10(8) CFU/ml. At equ...

PURPOSE To evaluate, by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the ability of noncycloplegic retinoscopy (NCR), Retinomax Autorefractor (Retinomax), and SureSight Vision Screener (SureSight) to detect significant refractive errors (RE) among preschoolers. METHODS Refraction results of eye care professionals using NCR, Retinomax, and SureSight (n = 2588) and of nurse and lay screene...

BACKGROUND The intranasal (IN) administration of epinephrine could be an alternative route for anaphylaxis treatment. Although IN epinephrine absorption has been demonstrated in animals, such data in humans are still lacking. OBJECTIVE To study the pharmacokinetics of IN epinephrine absorption in humans. METHODS Each healthy adult (n = 5) was administered IN saline, IN epinephrine at variou...

Growing evidence from field studies has linked daily stressors to dysregulated patterns of diurnal cortisol. Less is known about whether naturally-occurring positive events in everyday life are associated with diurnal cortisol. The objectives of this study were to evaluate daily positive events as predictors of between-person differences and within-person (day-to-day) variations in diurnal cort...

PURPOSE To evaluate cancer detection with targeted biopsy of the prostate performed on the basis of high-frequency Doppler ultrasonographic (US) imaging findings versus cancer detection with a modified sextant biopsy approach with laterally directed cores. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-two patients were prospectively evaluated with gray-scale, color, and power Doppler transrectal US performed w...

We propose a method (EXIA2) of catalytic residue prediction based on protein structure without needing homology information. The method is based on the special side chain orientation of catalytic residues. We found that the side chain of catalytic residues usually points to the center of the catalytic site. The special orientation is usually observed in catalytic residues but not in noncatalyti...

Prior research has shown that most known risk factors for suicide attempts in the general population actually predict suicide ideation rather than attempts among ideators. Yet clinical interest in predicting suicide attempts often involves the evaluation of risk among patients with ideation. We examined a number of characteristics of suicidal thoughts hypothesized to predict incident attempts i...

The increasing frequency of large, high-severity fires threatens the survival of old-growth specialist fauna in fire-prone forests. Within topographically diverse montane forests, areas that experience less severe or fewer fires compared with those prevailing in the landscape may present unique resource opportunities enabling old-growth specialist fauna to survive. Statistical landscape models ...

We aimed to determine the ability of a set of physical fitness tests to discriminate between presence/absence of fibromyalgia (FM) and moderate/severe FM. The sample comprised 94 female FM patients (52 ± 8 years) and 66 healthy women (54 ± 6 years). We assessed physical fitness by means of the 30-s chair stand, handgrip strength, chair sit and reach, back scratch, blind flamingo, 8-feet up and ...